CBS Partnership dominates headlines

News of the partnership with CBS definitely dominated the headlines for Answers.com this week. Many of the mentions were basic reprints of the original press release. These popped up in publications like Media Week to Tech Web. Very few reporters did any actual reporting it seems on the partnership with the news media giant. One exception, however, was Joe Lewis for Web Pro News who at least took the time to comment, “The days of sitting around the television as a family and watching the nightly news are over. People not only want to be informed, they want to be involved in the information gathering process.”

Among the commentary and analysis that was made over the media deal, most of it came from bloggers. The writer of Editor Weblog noted that the move by CBS and NY Times to add AnswerTips provides readers with a “

more thorough and informative news experience that only the virtually infinite space and interconnectivity of the Web allows.” Other mentions were seen on Convergence Culture.

Elsewhere, our friend Allen November brought some positive press our way again. Speaking to a school group in Canada, Allen demonstrated how a search for Martin Luther King on Google brings up a pro-Nazi webpage as the top result. November concluded his presentation by stating that students need to search out “authoritative sources on sites such as Answers.com and be vigilant when it comes to identifying websites.” Thanks, Allen.

In the education category, there were also a great blog from a teacher who uses blufr in his classroom. The Reflective Teacher wrote that blufr is not only educational, but more importantly, fun for his students. He also gives kudos to the fact that “

no matter whether you answer correctly or incorrectly, the site gives you a little more information about the answer.”

There were also a couple of journalists spotted citing info from Answers this week. One columnist in

Winnipeg

inserted our definition of junk food while contemplating the debate over whether to tax Twinkies and Twizzlers. Another article from

Coulter Press

in Western Mass., used Answers.com to find the weight of a surprise calf that was born to a Brahma cow who hid the pregnancy from the farm’s owners.

Slight surge in stock rides recent press

This week, things are looking up – that is for ANSW stock. After being promoted as an Add-on for Internet Explorer 7 by Microsoft, reports started hitting the circuits that our stock was up by 14.7 percent on Wednesday, and as much as 21 percent on Thursday.

Other positive press will hopefully buoy the price. In particular, Information Today awarded Answers.com with the “Top Information Service” People’s Choice Award for 2006. The announcement said that “Information Today's audience recognized the benefits of Answers.com's approach with comments like: ‘One click, one site, fast, free access to quality sources integrated on one page per topic, and ‘Thorough, user-friendly and most of all: fast and easy!’ Answers.com also received an Honorable Mention in the contest as a “Top Social Networking Tool.”

Another warm, fuzzy mention came from a blog called Hidden Business Treasures. In the post, they call Answers.com “a great way to get specific and trusted information more quickly than you can from Google.”

Blufr also got its due this week when AskMen named it as one of the “Best and Coolest Sites Around.” The writers said about the trivia game that it is “highly addictive, I spent an hour going through some of the questions. It's fun and you might just learn something new!”

BTW – at the markets’ close, the stock price was $13.90

1-Click Answers and site receive praise

In the Kudos category this week, there are two in particular to report: A British firm nominated Answers.com as one of the Best Search Engines on the Web. The final winner will be decided by the masses. Go by the site to cast your vote.

The other recipient of unbridled praise was 1-Click Answers. Upon reviewing the product, Soft32Download said “we were impressed by the quality and cleanliness of your program.” They gave it a 5-star rating and a 100% Clean and Safe to install award."

A couple of education publications are also applauding our efforts. In their September newsletter, the Association of American Teachers told readers that Answers.com “gives your students instant access to the reference materials they need for papers and research.” They also encouraged educators to take advantage of our free poster center.

Another educator found the content of our last Teacher Toolkit newsletter so compelling that she reprinted part of it on her blog, CU Online. FYI -- the teacher newsletter began offering lesson plan ideas for each topic area. It will be interesting to see if this blogger (who appears on Answers.com blog list) posts next week’s content, as well.

Answers.com was also cited as a source in a few news articles this week. Alice Hill, of Real Tech News, provided her readers with a history of the Automat courtesy of Answers.com. It seems a modern-day Automat recently opened in New York City. The members of the Manhattan office (and those visiting from Israel) can go by St. Mark’s Place if they’d like lunch via the coin-operated vending machines.

A columnist, Rich Campbell, also used Answers.com to define a SLAPP lawsuit. Seems an ambitious real-estate developer brought one against a woman simply for showing up at town meetings to voice her opposition to his proposed plan. Nineteen other defendants were named in the grievance.

Elsewhere, a staff intern at The Daily News relied on Answers.com to tell readers what My Space is all about. I’m not quite sure why the reporter didn’t just go to the About Us link on My Space, but I won’t complain.

Answers.com cited as a safe source in education magazine

As the Marketing Department prepares itself for the Cyber Safety Summit in Sacramento Calif., Edutopia Magazine (put out by the George Lucas Educational Foundation) published a great article that touted Answers.com as better Google: Read, “Online On Alert.”

There were also some nice television spots that circulated this week on NBC and ABC. Most of the segments are a short overview of who we are and what we do, with a focus on 1-Click Answers. You can view them at the link below (be warned that I had trouble viewing these with Firefox): http://media.vmsnews.com/MonitoringReports/100206/653592/C000770851/

Another nice article (missed last week) comes from a blogger for Master NewsMedia. It’s a great story on the value of putting content in context. The reporter names us and our deal with the NYTimes as a model example.

Otherwise, around the Web, there were several reporters who sourced Answers.com for information used in their articles.

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